Former nurse Debbie Hyman, who managed one of Calgary’s four mass H1N1 clinics in 2009, testified Monday she thought she had approval for the Calgary Flames to be inoculated in a private session.Lorraine Hjalte
/ Calgary Herald

AHS vice-president Lori Anderson told the queue-jumping inquiry Monday she was ‘incredulous’ when she learned nurses had helped arrange special H1N1 vaccinations for the Calgary Flames.Lorraine Hjalte
/ Calgary Herald

Michelle Bosch, the public health nurse who initiated a private H1N1 clinic for the Calgary Flames, testified Monday it seemed the best way to avoided security problems.Lorraine Hjalte
/ Calgary Herald

Jack Davis, former Calgary Health Region CEO, testified at the queue-jumping hearing Monday in Calgary. He said he never received requests from VIPs for preferential treatment.Lorraine Hjalte
/ Calgary Herald

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CALGARY — While Alberta Health Services shot down requests from seniors homes for private H1N1 clinics, public health nurses helped arrange special vaccinations for the Calgary Flames — and staff on a Foothills Medical Centre unit used hospital supplies to immunize their friends and family, an inquiry heard.

AHS vice-president Lori Anderson, who looked into the two incidents, said Monday she was “incredulous” to learn that 150 Calgary Flames players, family members and staff got the 2009 pandemic flu shot at a satellite clinic set up just for them, even as public H1N1 supplies grew scarce.

Anderson called the director in charge of the public vaccination clinics to discuss “rumours” about the privately held clinic for the NHL team, and said, “ ‘I know it sounds ridiculous. Do you know anything about it?’

“There was a long pause, and she said, ‘Yes, I do.’ ”

“I, quite frankly, was incredulous. I couldn’t believe this could have happened,” Anderson told retired Justice John Vertes at the Health Services Preferential Access Inquiry.

“It was very clear we were only immunizing at the mass clinics,” the AHS executive added, noting that the health superboard had turned down similar requests from nursing homes and other facilities.

But a Calgary flu nurse who lost her job after helping set up the Flames’ H1N1 clinic testified Monday she believed she had the approval of her AHS bosses to go ahead with the plan.

Debbie Hyman, who was a clinic manager at one of Calgary’s four mass distribution H1N1 clinics, described chaos in the public lineups for the pandemic flu shots, with people screaming, fighting and fainting. At one point, it got so bad, she feared for her safety and called Calgary police for help, Hyman testified.

Adding the high-profile NHL team to the mix seemed a bad idea, and when another nurse at the clinic, Michelle Bosch, suggested giving the Flames the vaccine elsewhere, Hyman called her director to get approval. The former flu nurse said she understood that if she didn’t hear back, she was free to go ahead with the clinic, and, in retrospect, is quite certain she had the right approvals.

“I believed that what I was doing was right, I believed I had the approval to do so, and I believed that I was doing the best that I could,” said Hyman, at the Health Services Preferential Access Inquiry.

“I just could not see 50 high-profile individuals coming to that type of environment and doing any good for public safety or staff safety, not to mention efficiency.”

Bosch gave evidence Monday that she first mentioned the plan to have the Flames vaccinated elsewhere after speaking with one of the team’s doctors, Dr. Jim Thorne, who was a family friend seeking advice on the best way to get the team immunized.

She said she feared the hometown hockey team would prove a “sideshow” in the already busy lines where nurses were giving out 3,000 shots a day.

The clinic was OK’d within two days of her first suggestion. Bosch said she’d initially asked for 50 doses, but 200 were approved and brought to Thorne’s family clinic for the Flames and their families.

Hyman also testified Monday that she overheard Thorne telling the players to say they got the vaccine at the Brentwood public clinic.

“He was the one telling people: ‘If you’re asked, just say that you received your vaccine at Brentwood,’ ” Hyman said.

“My response to him was, ‘Why are you telling people to do that? We have received approval to be here, and do this.”

Thorne, who took the stand Friday, has testified that AHS assured him the clinic was OK before he went ahead with it.

The doctor and the public nurses have each testified they thought the Flames’ clinic avoided security issues.

But Anderson said she thought it would actually be helpful to have the Flames in line, since it might encourage more people to get the new shot for the potentially deadly virus.

Two AHS staff members, including Hyman, were fired in the wake of public outrage over the Flames incident, though Anderson said Monday they weren’t let go because they held the clinic.

Anderson also described a second H1N1 incident involving staff at the Foothills Hospital. About 30 doses of the vaccine meant for staff were used for family and friends, Anderson said she learned. One nurse resigned and another was briefly suspended.

Earlier Monday, the inquiry heard from Jack Davis, who was CEO of the former Calgary Health Region between 1999 and 2008.

Davis said he sometimes came under fire from prominent people over how he was running the city’s health-care system but never received requests to bump them up the queue or do other favours.

As for an incident raised in previous testimony by hospital administrator Janice Stewart, about a family friend of then-premier Ralph Klein whose child was seriously ill and wanted help accessing better home-care services, Davis said he’d have looked into the issue, no matter who asked him.

The family wanted the critically ill child home and was inquiring about limits on home-care spending available.

When Stewart said the dying child wasn’t healthy enough to be moved, regardless of the home-care limit, Davis agreed with her advice, he said.

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